I have seen hexagons all over blogland and wasn’t really tempted to make them myself, until I came across Texas Freckles and her Hexagon Charm Quilt Piece-Along. It wasn’t that I wanted to join the piece along, but more about the incredible pictures she takes of all her colorful hexagons. Plus she has great how to videos and you can even print off your own paper pieces to cut up and start making hexagons right away. That is what I did so that I could get ready for the road trip we were taking the next day. Another thing that I like about her method is that she uses 2 1/2” squares of fabric, which is so much easier than having to cut out hexagons. I had a little 2 1/2” precut strip pack that my friend gave me for my birthday a year or two ago so I just cut those into squares really quick.

After a quick stop at JoAnn Fabrics the next morning so I could pick up some needles and quilting thread, we were off. And I got started basting hexagons right away.

Soon I had the cutest little stack of hexies.

I couldn’t wait to sew them together. I also was the DVD coordinator, snack getter for the kids, and Ipod DJ for my husband and I.

We finally got to our destination which was Ape Cave down by Mount St. Helens. It is a long tunnel under ground that was formed by flowing lava.

You climb down the stairs to get to the entrance.

We were each armed with a flashlight because it is pitch black in the tunnel. Kinda creepy huh? It reminded me of this little adventure we had a couple summers ago.

Most of the pictures I tried to take were too dark. Here is a picture of where we got to the end where you can belly crawl for a while longer. The kids went a ways in and I snapped this picture. Most of the tunnel is big and open. By the time we came back out we had walked about a mile and a half. It was very cool.

The drive within the national forest was so beautiful. We got some peeks at Mount St. Helens through the trees.

And lots of other beautiful spots.

I continued to baste and sew my hexgons together on the drive home. Don’t they look pretty?

The other reason for the trip besides Ape Cave was to find a Geocache that sits at the midpoint of a triangle of geocaches we have found called The Triad. One of the caches is in Portland and is the first geocache ever, the second is called the Ape Cache (which actually has nothing to do with Ape Cave and is no where near it), and the third is the offices of Groundspeak in Seattle (which is the Geocaching headquarters). All we had left was to find is the midpoint cache and you get a really cool geocoin. It ended up being a wild goose chase on this crazy gravel road with big ruts. We saw a bear which was cool. It was quite an adventure! My husband is going to go back sometime with a friend of ours that geocaches and has a 4 wheel drive truck. I don’t mind not going on that crazy road again! :)

Cute hexagons...someday I'll do them. I think it would be easy to cut out the templates with my Cricut! You guys had quite the adventure. I enjoyed seeing the pictures after hearing about it on the phone. Geocaching creates fun outings!

My husband and I have always wanted to go to this park. I've gotta show him your pictures. Love the hexagons. And I agree 2 1/2" is the perfect size. You can even use left over jelly rolls to make them. I have tons of 2 1/2" squares left over.